


Bremen March

by fuwafuwallen



Series: Linked Universe [3]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bremen Mask, But he's making it worse, But mostly Chaos, Crack, Cuccos (Legend of Zelda), Gen, Legend does care, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Protective Legend (Linked Universe), Sky Finally Learns the Ferocity of Cuccos, They're scary, a bit angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24927637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuwafuwallen/pseuds/fuwafuwallen
Summary: Arriving at Lon Lon Ranch, Legend, Wind, and Warriors were tasked at handling Cuccos once again. Sky volunteered in helping, but Legend immediately refused. Little did he knew that his caring will bring them into chaos.Or: The Links witnessed Time's scary ability in taming the Cuccos.(Aka: the title says it all).
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe), Hyrule & Legend (Linked Universe), Legend & Warriors (Linked Universe), Malon (Legend of Zelda)/Time (Linked Universe), Time & Twilight (Linked Universe), Twilight & Wild (Linked Universe)
Series: Linked Universe [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822597
Comments: 6
Kudos: 188





	Bremen March

**Author's Note:**

> Based on Linked Universe in Tumblr.

Under the afternoon sky and several feet descended onto the ground above, the group of heroes breathed relief. 

There was vastness of green, stretched across the horizon as far as the eyes could see. The fences sticking on the side of the dirt path in circular area, and not far from where the party had stood, laid a very familiar gate to the nine of them. 

Lon Lon Ranch. 

Upon registered the surroundings and finally supplied their minds with the place's name, all the worn out and exhausted countenances visible through all of them had disappeared, gradually rearranged into a full blossomed smile, cried of cheers, or simple sigh of content and shoulders being slumped down. 

The Goddesses must have been oddly generous enough to let their heroes to finally earned a breather that came once in a blue moon. After several weeks and months of constantly leaping through time and space, battling with unknown forces that came ambushed the party, dealing nasty wounds each day, the Links finally able to stay on a land very dear to them, feeling protected and sheltered under the roof without foes constantly terrorizing them, and having the moment of proper rest and healing after endless camping and sleeping on rough grounds. 

Their smiles were identically greeted back from a certain redheaded woman, and their unofficial leader immediately leaned towards her into reunion embrace. Once they felt sufficient enough─not that the rest of the Links minded for them to took longer, they were happy for them, after all─the married couple guided them inside the house. 

“Welcome to Lon Lon Ranch.”

* * *

While the situation inside may seem to look overwhelmed, the landholder didn't mind much and more than welcomed the eight of them with open arms. They immediately made themselves felt at home, exchanged in several heartfelt conversation for a couple of hours before making their ways scattered around the ranch. They insisted in unison to help with the chores, much to Malon considering at first. Even with finally being given the luxury to rest, away from burden and responsibility, something within the Hero's Spirits still acting to help those in need, after all. 

“Alright, you guys know the drill,” Legend's snickers echoed on the back of the ranch, grabbing onto drawstring pouch he'd held high as a show to his two companions, making whatever inside jiggling in the process. “I've got a bag of rupees for those who wants to handle the Cuccos.” 

“For the last time, Legend,” Warriors interjected almost immediately, face clearly showing displeasure as index finger sentenced to the red-clad hero. “Those are _my_ rupees, and I won't let you get anywhere of my savings with that─ _that thing_.”

Wind, who was quite through the whole conversation but still stand out visibly annoyed, rolled his eyes towards the army of Cuccos roaming absentmindedly not far from them three. It had been no secret that most of the Links did not have pleasant memories with the said animal. While it looked harmless and calm at first, oh trust them, they'd rather fought Ganon thousands of times than confronting those absolute madman, ferocious fiend. 

“Oh, come on,” Legend grumbled, turned his focus from the Cuccos and locked eyes with the Captain again. “And you are telling me you are a Captain of the Royal Guard and couldn't even handle a single damn brainless Cuccos?!” 

“You─” Warriors sputtered and grew embarrassingly faint red at the remarks. “Said the one who's the most seasoned of us all!” 

“You wanna fight?!” 

“Guys, stop it,” Wind clearly didn't enjoy his pleasant day like what he had hoped before. Hearing these two roasting each other was like an everyday routine which he never minded, but the fact that they were trapped in tasked with the Cuccos was getting his mood nowhere of being healed. Sure, lifting all those crazy sacks which like twice a size of him was tiresome, doubled with his lack of power and build of muscles compared that of Twilight's self-proclaimed natural strength, but he'd rather going through all that chores than taming the feral animals back to their cages. 

“Can we just ask Sky? That guy knows what he's up to.”

Despite still getting bothered at how unnaturally Sky had bonded with those _tiny birds_ he called, Wind offered the idea instead of letting this conversation led nowhere. He missed Legend's horrified gasp though, as Sky trotted towards them as if getting ahead of the situation. Perfect. 

“I'll do it, I love these tiny birds!” 

“No,” Legend outright cut through, horrified and disgusted expression blend into one across his countenance. This seemed to invite curiosity to Wind and Warriors as they turned around and raised a brow to the hero in question. Even Sky had to stopped caressing the bird's feathers in his embrace, being as confused as the rest of them. 

“Great. We just got reinforcement who willingly save us from this doom and the first thing you do is shove him off. What the hell is wrong with you?” Warriors snapped, left hand placed on his waist as he clicked his tongue in sign of annoyance. 

“Yeah! Legend, why?” Wind complained in displeasure, showed his agreement with the Captain. “We can just leave these to Sky and finally get this done with! Isn't that what you want as well?” 

“Look, I don't care whatever the hell is going on inside your head, but I'm fucking done seeing you getting so friendly with that thing! Heck, you're the only Link who's not afraid of _this thing_ and it's not fucking normal at all!” Legend snatched away _this thing_ he had emphasized on his sentences from Sky's grasp. Goddess, just by touching it already made his adrenaline pumped so hard. But he's not letting _this thing_ harm Sky further despite the said hero's reassurance that it'd done nothing but harmless so far. “And no, I'm not letting you go anywhere near these again!” 

Several horror gasps resonated through the air along with wide-eyed beam towards him, and Legend took their drastic change of expression with confusion and discomfort before his mind had fully supplied the situation and came into dreadful realization when he felt the wings around his palms began to flap violently. 

_Shit_. 

* * *

After finishing his chores which wasn't particularly much for him to encounter troubles, Hyrule strolled around the ranch at leisure pace. He was a man of high adventuring spirit, thus taking his time to admire at every beauty of his surroundings. He grew fond of Time's Hyrule, being Lon Lon Ranch at most. It sparked with life unlike of how complete wasteland of his homeland had become. It was safe from any monster that had plagued him with endless nightmares and the constant play of hunting, sought for his blood at any cost. It bathed him with warmth and made him felt at home despite having no place to return to, of how he lived inside the desolate cave with nothing but himself, an old man at company, and a sword as his lifelong partner. 

Hyrule remembered the conversation he had with Malon earlier, the usual same as the first time he witnessed bunch of fairies gathered around the bowl. They were still searching for one particular missing fairy, and if he pieced together with Time's story reveal during one night of their camp, the fairy was once used to be his companion. A partner. He was never given the luxury to feel that, but he was more saddened with the fact that Malon was still searching for her, that Time still had faith to reunited altogether again. Hyrule just hoped the best for the couple to find her soon. 

Something akin to a shout entered the back of his mind, rendered his daydream unconscious as he alerted himself into battle stance. _A monster?_ Hyrule felt his panic began rising, but no, that would not be it, would it? They were out of the forest, surely no monsters would roam towards here, right? 

Hyrule brought his pace running onto the source of voices, there were several of them now and was familiar the more he was getting closer. As he finally recognized whole of their voices and skidded to a stop, he let his shoulders relaxed. 

_Wrong_. 

The scenery was a total chaos that Hyrule couldn't comprehend what was going on, what had made everything like this. One thing he knew, there were feathers floating and scattering all around the air and ground. He heard violent flaps everywhere and several figures running for dear life from the flying creatures. Between the shout and scream, he caught the thrashing crowing sound and that's where everything made clear to him. 

Oh _shit_. _Cuccos_. 

“AND NOW LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE! I SWEAR I'M GONNA KILL YOU!” He saw Warriors on the field, gripping tightly on his scarf that was seemed in the verge of being snatched away by the army of Cuccos. He seemed to try to shoo them away by waving his scarf around at first, but quickly became outnumbered and too overwhelmed to carry on. Hyrule heard him swore something about preference of going through another war than dealing with these Cuccos. Hyrule not sure whether both are preferrable though. 

“I TOLD YOU LEAVING THIS TO SKY WAS A BETTER IDEA! YOUR CARING IS BULLSHIT!” Hyrule was taken aback by Wind's sudden swearing, though it should not be that of a surprise, considering he was a pirate by soul. Wind wasn't any better though, he was clearly slow at escaping and his height had made the Cuccos easy to afloat around his head. He spun his grappling hook in best attempt to scattered them around. “NOW OUR BEST PERSON AT HANDLING THE CUCCOS IS SCARED! YOU'RE NOT HELPING ANYTHING, LEGEND!” 

True to his words, Hyrule witnessed Sky at the edge of the field, back leaned against the wall and knees clutched ever so close to his chest. His body gestured forward and eyes downcast. Using his white sailcloth to blanketed his head, his fingers clawed deep on each side of his head. Hyrule couldn't quite catch the murmurs escaped the other hero, but he could hear faint something about how _unbelievably_ scary these birds are. He didn't blame Sky though, but the said hero was shivering greatly and it worried him. 

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! I GET IT, OKAY?! NOW JUST FUCKING HELP ME GET OUTTA H─” Legend shrieked in horror as the Cuccos decided to make their way attacking him, fuck, he shouldn't have invited their attention by swearing like that! Before he could manage, he tripped and collapsed on the ground with a painful thud, bringing out his arms to shield his face as he was slowly buried under the piles of Cuccos. “FUCK!” 

“Legend!” Hyrule called out worriedly, decided enough to observe the surrounding and sprang into action to help. He made a mental note to check the rest of them later, for his mentor was his priority right now. Legend may be at fault judging from their story earlier, but Hyrule didn't, _never_ have the heart of leaving his mentor behind, even if it would mean charged directly into the creature he's most afraid of.

Hyrule ran towards the direction Legend had fell, seeing him grunting and tossing around to acquire his freedom. To storm inside through the hurricane of feathers was nerve-wracking, and Hyrule could feel he was about to be targeted as well, but he quickly grabbed Legend's shoulders and pulled him out of chaos. 

“Legend! Are you okay?” 

“Hyrule?” He cracked open his eyes and gestured him to sat up, seeing his protégé seated on his side. Why was Hyrule here and since when did he get here? But then his mind raced towards the Cuccos, and he finally pulled back to the reality. “Yeah, fuck no. How am I suppose to stay alright when my ass keep getting kicked out by that stupid thing?!” 

Hyrule couldn't help but chuckle, so he was okay enough to swear. He was about to say another before, unfortunately, the chaos plunged down once again. 

* * *

Four knew what he had to do with his chores, or rather, it was the chores specifically tasked for him only. Four was a certified blacksmith, he took pride and joy in his job, and would worked out for hours to his heart's content. Sure, he wasn't a farrier, but he had some necessary blacksmithing skills to shape metal shoes to a horse's hooves. And it was his task today. 

Four was indoor this whole time, surrounded himself in metals and various blacksmithing tools, and he smiled at how close he was reminded of his own home. Tightened the knot of his green headband and slipped his hair behind his left ear, the Smithy made his way towards his workplace. He took several steels necessary to make the horseshoe and heated them in a forge. Once he deemed soft enough to shape, he brought them to the anvil and began hammering them in the process, achieved the shape of letter U to fit the hoof later on. Earlier, Twilight was tossed with the job of cleaning the sole and rim of the horse's hoof and had demonstrated its size to Four. All he need to do now was hours of patience and the constant movement of forge and hammering. 

“ _It is nostalgic, isn't it? We haven't do this once in a while!_ ” Red chirped happily from the back of Four's mind. 

“ _Yeah, missed whole bunch of this stuff,_ ” Blue made his agreement known. “ _Feels like I can punch them with my hammer!_ ” 

“ _That's two completely different hammer, Blue,_ ” Vio, who was quiet throughout the conversation, had appeared to give a moment of lecture much to Blue's groaned. 

“ _Oh, you just shut up,_ ” Blue rolled his eyes halfheartedly, “ _But you like this, too, don't you?_ ” 

Vio chuckled underneath his breath, “ _I suppose I do._ ” 

Four smiled as hearing the peaceful conversation on his mind. It brought him delight to see the other four counterparts of himself seemed to enjoy doing this, too. Green spoke none, but it wasn't unusual nor odd considering he was the most dedicated in smithing out of them all, having full concentration took over him but still happy hearing their comments nonetheless.

“ _Sooo_ _,_ ” Red started another conversation as Four still repeating the smithing process, “ _We are going to take care the other's weapons after this, right?_ ” 

“ _Yeah, that have always been our plan,_ ” Green finally contributed. He had only done small tendings during their camp, now was the perfect moment to properly fix and sharpen their swords. He was the Smithy to the group, after all. “ _Why though?_ ” 

Blue seemed to recognize Red's meaning and didn't miss the horror on his face, unlike the oblivious Green. He groaned loudly once again. “ _Yeah crap, we're_ _gonna_ _deal with that wild child and his numerous broken weapons again!_ ” 

Upon this, Four stopped his action. The horseshoe he had been holding underwater was almost slipped out of his reach and drowned completely. Had he not remained his composure during the process of quenching, he would have spilled the entire bowl of cooling water across the floor. 

Oh. _Oh, right_.

Four groaned in identical match of Blue's, and he wasn't sure if it was himself, Green, or Blue which he kind of felt his pupils shifted into the said colour. Why was he not surprised at his sudden moodbreak at this point? 

Finally secured the horseshoe and hammer atop the anvil, Four rummaged his blonde strands in an exasperated sigh. “I'm going to take a break.” 

He thought walking would finally ease his mind and readied himself to work once again, but he realized, and annoyed at that, it wasn't going to be that simple. A small walk outside and the fresh air of the ranch wasn't enough to cool off his head, especially considered four different person resided inside him. Perhaps he would call this a day and enjoyed nice strolling around. He figured out there were still several days left before the portal called forth them once again. Fortunately his counterparts agreed as well, and Four was glad for it. 

Four knew it should be his responsibility as a blacksmith to tend every broken weapons, but he couldn't help himself to grew annoyed as his mind raced with Wild and his constant habit of breaking and shattering weapons. Swords, blades, spears, bows, arrows, shields seemed to be so fragile underneath his hands, even though the said hero's appearance wasn't that of brute force compared to that of Twilight and Warriors. All things considered, of course he had the right to be angry. He had forged his self-proclaimed perfect weapon that he was so confident it wouldn't break anymore, handed it as a gift to Wild, only for it to shatter _completely_ after several swings. His eyes wouldn't stop burning bright blue at that unpleasant memory. 

Fortunately the stroll helped him to distract his mind. Sure, there wasn't anything interesting beside the endless stretching of green hills and fences formed a chain alongside the dirt path, but he wouldn't trade this scenery with the dense, thick forest enveloped in nothing but darkness, even the small clearing to made out camp was still considered dangerous to stay. He chuckled to himself, he wondered if the Minish would like this scenery. And now that he thought of it, he's kind of missed his Hyrule somehow. 

Finally close on acquired his inner peace, Four was about to relaxed down his shoulders before he heard muffled screams across the distance, as thus he dashed off towards the direction in fast and guarded stance. And the scenery provided before his eyes was more than enough to let the smallest hero gasped in utter speechless. 

The field was a complete mess, and he wasn't exaggerating at all. The grasses were cut in disordered pattern and feathers glued to the ground all over the places. There were blur of mad dashes on the air, indicated bunch of something were floating, flying around in uncontrollable and aimless sense of direction. He finally registered the words came from various screams and finally able to make out the owner of them. 

“SOMEONE FUCKING STOP THIS THING IN AN INSTANT!” That was Legend, Four's mind supplied, and he was the easiest to recognize due to his sassy remarks. But there was desperation in his words this time. “YOU! YOU STOP THIS THING AND I'LL GIVE YOU ALL OF MY BAG OF RUPEES!” 

Four's still wide-eyed trailed towards the person Legend referred as _you_ , and he traced to Warriors, in his battered blue scarf which wasn't looking in any better condition as well. “THAT IS _MY_ RUPEES! AND NO, YOU STARTED ALL THIS SHIT FIRST SO FIGURED OUT BY YOURSELF!” 

For the love of Hylia, what had happened here?

Four saw Wind ducked before attacking the nearby Cuccos. Oh shit, that only made things worse. “I CANT STOP THIS! HOW DO YOU EVER CALM THIS THING ANYWAY?!” 

“I─I DON'T KNOW!” And Four felt himself frowned, hadn't Sky always best in taming these things? Why was he so scared now? “I TRIED TO CARESS THEM BUT IT DIDN'T WORK! I─I NEVER THOUGHT THEY WERE THIS SCARY!” 

“GUYS, EVERYTHING OKAY?” Hyrule seemed to try to keep everything in order, but all Four saw was him starting to get overwhelmed by the chaos. 

His mind started to form the same chaos.

“ _W─What_ _happened here?_ ” Red began to cry in his mind, roused in full panic and worry. Worried for his family yet panicked to deal with the animals. “ _They are in danger!_ _W─We_ _need to help them!_ ” 

“ _And getting our asses caught on by_ _Cuccos_ _?!_ ” Blue expressed his pure irritation, “ _Absolutely no, thanks!_ ” 

“ _Blue, you can't do that!_ ” If they were materialized right now, Four could feel Red shaking Blue's shoulders violently, tears were beginning to well in his eyes. “ _They need help! I know the_ _Cuccos are scary, but what if something happened with them? We all know how Cuccos_ _can be dangerous when in rage!_ ” 

“ _And that danger is why I refuse to deal with any of them!_ ” Blue's statement left no more argument, but Red was oblivious to the sign and began crying. 

“ _Should we split?_ ” Green nervously providing idea, which earned various looks from his brothers. He could feel Blue glared at him with something like _split, really?_

“ _I don't think that is a wise idea, Green,_ ” it was in this particular times when they were glad Vio was at their company. He caught on agreement of _yeah_ , but also more amount of desperate _why_. Vio analyzed both this contradicted perspectives, and had called out for votes. 

“ _We split!_ ” Red chirped with no hesitation. 

“ _Yeah, no fucking way,_ ” Blue crossed his arms. “ _We won't split._ ” 

“ _I think of splitting as well..._ ” That was Green, albeit hesitant. He was always the embodiment of confidence before. 

All eyes laid on Vio, impatiently waiting, and he took this information very well at how his opinion will affected their decision at most. He thought of refusal as well, which will earned them equal votes and free from Blue's possible unleashed anger. But part of him, with all necessary analysis he had considered, thought it would be better to split as well, matching his opinion with Red's and Green's. Splitting with the Four Sword required amount of energy, but since they were in safe town, they could recover themselves plenty without bother. And while it doesn't do much number with the hoard of Cuccos, they could at least dragged the heroes from the mess. _That will do then_ , Vio silently nodded. 

“ _We shall split, but only to help them outside the commotion and we regroup once again._ ” 

Four unsheathed the Four Sword from his back scabbard and gripped tight the hilt of his sword as it began to emanate lights. It seemed to invite the heroes' attention as well. But before they turned towards the lights, four splitting images of Four in the respective colours of the smallest hero's previously multicolored tunic appeared on sight. They had revealed their secret before, and the heroes were very understanding on it, so it doesn't tensed them much anymore. 

“I don't like this,” Blue's displeased musings came first, glared profoundly at Vio. “I'm getting a bad feeling.” 

Vio merely hummed at the hunch, frowned at the surrounding. 

“Guys!” Red made his first move towards the troubled party, received by several gasps and confusion. He ignored them, there's not much time, after all. “Everything okay?” 

“Of course no, stupid Red.” Blue swore at him, and Red didn't feel offended because he was right. He scanned around his family who's still under the assault of angry birds before his target locked on the struggling pair of Hyrule and Legend. Did they try to attack them with a fucking boomerang? 

No matter. Blue ran towards the two heroes and pulled each of their arms. “Let's get outta here, quick. I have a bad feeling about this.” 

Red was also aiding Sky, he has never seen the Chosen to be so scared of these birds before. Had something happened? He wanted to ask, his curiosity was also high, but let's save that question for later on.

“Time is going to be so angry at this,” Green murmured under his breath, but Wind heard him as clear as day as he was being scooped up on Green's shoulder. He yelled in realization which invited the other's attention who seemed to catch quick as well. 

“I know,” Vio demonstrated his concern in rather calm yet nervous voice, he was guiding Warriors now. “In which we regroup and help them later.” 

Blue was fidgeting this whole time, the bad feeling gradually crept up his spine in an alarming state. Can they just walk faster?! He didn't know what will happen next, but the back of his mind had countlessly told him something will come and raided them from above and they will get caught on it if they keep walking around this _slow_! 

“Guys, I─” Blue managed to form a sentence after moments of opened and closed his mouth. He wanted to give his warning, for it was now or never, but he was cut short by multiple squawk and noise of wings flapping came closer and louder. He dared to turn skyward, and the rest soon followed his motion. 

The result came after made him regretted it for the rest of his life. 

And the gangs experienced the storm of _even more_ Cuccos who responded to the call of their brethren. 

“RUN!” 

* * *

Being the survivalist of the group, Wild knew and experienced many aspects. He could help the couple with various and other things, of course, but he was, and was already accustomed to being the party's cook he'd held the position with such pride. Hence he decided to help Malon with her cooking again, seeing as he's the only Link with decent skill in cooking, after all. 

Wild remained on the kitchen this whole time, accompanied with redheaded woman. They were preparing a feast to fed all the ten residences, so she appreciated his help on making extra amount of dinner. They cooked various recipes of foods, combined recipes of Malon's usual menu and Wild's cooking experiments on wilderness. Wild was cooking in simple stewpots now, making potages and stews as their most common dishes. While waiting for the process, he rummaged through his slate and tapped several times to made five fishes materialized on his palms. Being cold and moist in his grasp, he made his way over the frying and cooked them in a way that heated and dried them, seasoned with hot and dry spices. A slight glance to his side exposed Malon did practically the same. She prepared a thick wheat porridge boiled in a meat broth and seasoned with spices, but there were other porridge boiled in milk and sweetened with sugar for desserts. She opened one of the kitchen cupboard and let out a basket and arranged pile of fruits there; the fruits of choice were apples, oranges, pears, plums, strawberries, and grapes. 

Malon opened the next cupboard for another ingredients she could use before Wild heard soft gasp of her. 

“Oh, dear me,” Malon sounded rather defeated, covered her mouth with her left palm before lowered it down and turned her attention to Wild. “I am so sorry to have ask you this, but would you mind and get me some carrots? You can find it outside the house.” 

“Oh, no, what am I thinking now?” Malon seemed to be considering her earlier request, earned her immediate change in decision with a shook on her head, “No, you don't need to, dear. I will get it myself...” her voice trailed off by Wild's interjection. 

“It's fine,” Wild smiled, heartfelt. “I'll do it.” 

“I'm sorry,” Malon couldn't help but smiled back, a little guilt however, nevertheless complied. “We will cook that Carrot Cake you talked on your recipe after this, okay?” 

Wild felt a pang of motivation outburst his grin, and he couldn't be more happier to nod at the offer. _Sweet_. It has been a while since he tried that one particular cake, so he's looking forward to today's dinner. While he mainly got the ingredients ready inside his slate, he was missing several carrots to complete the recipe; what is a Carrot Cake without a carrot? So, when Malon said she had stock of carrots outside, Wild carried his new quest in joy. And he knew where those vegetables were, nearby the horses. Twilight might be there as well. 

Wild ventured along the dirt path. He knew Malon needed her ingredients soon but there's no obligatory in rushing things and she didn't mind as well. This ranch felt nice, he wished for it to last longer, but he was aware it will be soon consumed in an age long gone, in his Hyrule, that is. 

Roused back to reality, the Champion lightly shook his head, and proceed down the road. It didn't take much time before he halted his movement to the tray laid next to his foot, filled with fresh carrots. The long blonde male crouched down and began scooped up five carrots in his embrace. Then he heard a voice called out for him and the towering presence behind him. 

“Hey, Cub.” 

The referred hero pulled himself from his knees and turned around, took a better look at the source of the voice. In truth, he didn't need to confirm anything to made him recognized the voice, but seeing his mentor's appearance attempted him to grin more. 

“Hey, Twi. Taking care of Epona? Where's Time?” 

It was no surprise considering Twilight was a ranch hand, hence this job suited him the most. But Wild knew how much his mentor loved that one certain steed, much to the other hero's chuckle at his question. 

“He went back just now,” Twilight elaborated, curious eyes now staring at the bunch of carrots in Wild's arms. “And those?” 

“Oh, Malon asked me to take some since she ran out of carrots in the kitchen. We are planning to make Carrot Cakes tonight.” 

“You've been wanting to try that out, yeah?” Twilight formed a grin and stepped closer towards his protégé, ruffled his hair jovially. “Can't wait.” 

Wild was about to laugh when he caught yells not far from them, alerting Twilight in the same expression. The wolf-clad hero considered shifting at first, scouted around the ranch to detect nearby enemies, before both heroes caught something flew past them. At first was mad blur, but eventually they formed the shape of a bird─no, _birds_. There were whole squad of them. 

“Cuccos?!” Wild gasped, abandoned the carrots and immediately headed towards the direction based of its trail. Twilight followed beside him. 

“That's weird, Sky should be cuddling them now. Why would they─” 

Why would they broke out to chaos?

Twilight was not very sure whether _chaos_ was the right word to describe the entire situation, or something precede far beyond might be more suitable for this. But it was unpleasant sight to say the least. He saw both Legend and Warriors still arguing─he dared they were arguing far before─despite they were currently suffering from the onslaught of the birds. Hyrule tried his best to ran away from the Cuccos. Wind tried to parry the attacks from pecking his face but nothing sorted out. Sky, to his frowning, was seen shielding himself from harm and fraught with horror. And somewhere around the field, he saw motion of colours and four identical appearances entered his sight. Wait, Four had split? 

Sure enough, Red was seen wandering around avoiding any violent attacks and had nearly tumbled down the ground. Blue was furious, but in no match to how vicious the Cuccos were against them. He tried to shook them with his hammer but left to no avail. Green attempted to raise his shield to fend off the birds and Vio ducked underneath from their claws, but nothing the four of them did worked to stop the creature's wrath. 

The only thing Twilight could think of was Time's disappointed face. Oh, he's going to be so angry at this. No, not angry. _Ire, fury, rage._

“Twilight! Wild!”

He heard names calling for them, and both heroes reflexively upturned towards the call. Brunette ruffled through the head, clad in all too familiar green tunic with brown underclothes. Hyrule.

Hyrule ran towards the still-stunned figures of mentor-protégé, stopping just right in front of them. Away from the commotion doesn't make his appearance less than a mess, but he paid no heed to that. Regaining his composure through the gasping breaths, he pleaded. “Thank goodness you guys are here! The Cuccos start going berserk and we cannot stop them and we─” 

“There you are, ranch hand!” 

The three turned towards another voice calling for them, Twilight especially. Hyrule was rather annoyed that his request was cut short before he could utter, but the rest of them just as curious at the snarky, demanding remarks, but also held tonality of desperation within the voice. Had the situation become so dire enough to make Legend showed visible panic? 

Legend must have noticed Twilight and Wild's appearance during Hyrule's exclamation earlier. He's looking all bitter as if Twilight had personally offended him. He raised a brow at that, curious and confused as the red-clad hero skidded to a stop before him. 

“You're a farmer, so you better fucking help us out with this shit using that country brain knowledge of yours!” 

_What?_

Before he could react to anything, processing all the situation happening, Twilight felt his arm was being dragged off by Legend and then stopped. Another presence beside the Veteran, yelling. Warriors.

“YOU STARTED IT, YOU END IT! DON'T DRAG ANYONE TO CLEAR THE MESS YOU HAVE STARTED!” 

“SO WHAT? THINK YOU'RE SO MIGHTY YOU CAN STOP THIS, HUH? I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, YOU CAN'T. I CAN'T. AND I DON'T WANT TO STAY WITH CUCCOS FOREVER, NO FUCKING THANKS.” 

With a huff, Legend pulled Twilight's arm again, tone held finality in it. “Rancher's coming with me.” 

“What, no. I don't want to deal with Cuccos,” Twilight briefly stopped, earned Legend to turned around to him. His arms crossed, frowning. “Don't drag me on this.” 

“And why _not_?!” Legend snarled, his foot stomped the Earth which could probably invited the Cuccos ' wrath if he dared furthermore. “For fuck's sake, you're a _rancher!_ This will be piece of cake! Just do like, heck I don't know, running around and gather them to their cages or something! You have done this with goats or whatever before, haven't you?!” 

“Well, yes, but no. Not with that,” Twilight growled, “ _That thing._ ”

Legend was about to snap again in his maximum boiled irritation before he could feel an arrow zapped past him. And the next thing he knew, the field behind him burned. 

He─no, the whole party─turned to find the accused archer before all their gazes bore into Wild, bow and fire arrow in hands. 

“...Oops?” 

* * *

Time stepped out of his room with a groan, left palm pinned down his head as if the faint noises outside was at blame for his sudden headache. Malon was gone to check the fairies much to his gratitude, so he took opposite route to greet his protégé who was tending off Epona as usual. He stayed brief however, before making his way inside again and witnessed his wife preparing them dinner. Normally he would joke around and helped her with his poor skill of cooking, but knowing Wild was there before and some of the dishes were his makings, Time wouldn't dare to mess up with his creation. Everyone knew the Champion never liked if anyone make fun of his foods. Hence he decided to rest inside his room, as what Malon had suggested after his brief of consideration. 

But his day off was cut short by loud _boom_ sound. He cursed at Hylia for not even getting him a blink of rest, but knew that none of them would solve anything. Time decided to make his way best to Malon at the kitchen, looking as confused and worried as he was. Though he was much better at hiding his complexion. 

“Oh dear, what was that noise? And Wild hasn't returned yet when I asked him to bring me some carrots...” 

Time caught her musings and he sighed at the result, rummaging through his hair with even more tiredness than usual. The carrots were just right outside the house, surely Wild wouldn't wander through the forest. If yes, in which he hopefully not, he will give him lectures later. “I'll go check on him.” 

With Malon bid him an affectionate and worried _be careful, dear_ , Time marched outside. 

And the scenery filled him with horror.

“WILD! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING! WHY DID YOU PULL OUT A FIRE ARROW!” 

“I'M SORRY, OKAY! I WANT TO PIN THEM DOWN BUT I ACCIDENTALLY LET OUT A FIRE ARROW INSTEAD OF NORMAL ONES!” 

“YOU WANT TO ATTACK CUCCOS WITH _ARROWS_?!” 

“EVERYONE, CALM DOWN!”

“NOW LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, LEGEND!”

“WHAT, NOW IT IS MY FAULT!?”

“Cuccos are scary, Cuccos are scary...!”

“Sky, are you okay?”

“I TOLD YOU WE ARE NOT SPLITTING!”

“I'm sorry.”

“GUYS, PLEASE HELP ME!”

All of the shouts and screams and the commotion blend into one in his ringing ears. Eleven figures got bombarded by storms of beaks, claws, feathers, _everything_ , and not to mention the meadow _burned_ and _scorched_ on the background. Time gaped in horror and upturned his eyes and let his pupils dilate in shock at the creatures scattering around them, whom too busy scrambling to safety. He could feel the door creaked open and Malon stood beside him, gasping the same horror.

“What... what happened here?”

As if on high alert, all the Links stopped whatever things they were doing and followed their gaze to the trail of whispered, gasped voice. It was barely audible even, the Cuccos screeching sound was more to worry about, but the unmistakably familiar disappointed tone in it warned them all. And sure enough, the dilated pupils found its new way to the eleven battered figures, and Time's own was replaced by those usual disappointed, _disapproving_ face. 

Time wanted nothing more than quick explanation from the boys, but all he received were murmurs of curses and swears and some were possibly scared and others looked _doomed_. He may looked angry right now, and sure, he has the rights of it; his ranch was _burning_! But he didn't want to cause furthermore problems, not when this had already happened, and merely sighed; heavier and longer.

The Links were ready for some sort of punishments and lectures from their leader, but the scolding never came and only rendered them with confusion as Time began to take something─perhaps, two things─from his pocket, and showed them to no one as he quickly put them into action. An ocarina and a mask. 

In all honestly, Time wouldn't really want to use this method and never found a reason to use one again. It wasn't like he was hiding secrets of this one particular mask on his collections, not even the time when he took care of the Cuccos before the boys came the mask was of any use. But, why didn't he feel surprised at today's Cuccos Attack event, even stored both his mask and his ocarina as if he had anticipated this all along? 

Time stared down at the mask in hands. It resembles the face of a bird; white wings on its side, red piercing eyes, sharp yellow beak. Bremen Mask, he noted. He brought it up to his face, and unlike the majority of his masks which covered up whole of his face and letting him transformed, it stayed put, lower half of his face was still exposed, and wings were sticking up through the sides his ears. And then he placed the ocarina on his mouth. 

And a song echoed. 

The eleven Links were dumbfounded, did the old man just calmly played the ocarina and _marched?_ They saw Time passed through them, eyes closed in concentrating, and simply marched towards the chaos. They were worried, of course, but the next thing they found before they could even shout a warning to their vulnerable leader was the Cuccos were starting to follow him.

The music was simple and upbeat, very short as it doesn't even last several seconds before looped to the beginning. But in each blow of the music was a command, entranced ferocious creatures with a mesmerizing marching song, and one by one the Cuccos were sticking to his trail, eventually formed a line of army and guiding them to their cages. 

Warriors wanted to laugh at that, of how their old man seemed to have more the qualities of a leader than he was with the eight of them. But his mind retraced back to the horror experiences earlier and decided to go silent. 

Legend wore the expression of full shock, and it would have been comical to laugh at if not the rest of them borne the same surprise as well. He could only stuttering nonsenses before he finally said, _what the fuck_. 

Hyrule was right beside him, but in contradiction to his mentor's expression. He looked more worried than ever, wished nothing more but their leader's safety. He could very sure feel his hands glow in urge to heal him, but diminished when he sensed harmless. 

Wind was the most expressive of them. He looked as if his jaw could hit the ground, his eyes could jumped out above, and the rest of his countenance was exaggerating as well. He bursted out lots of questions, but all fell blur in everyone's ears including him. 

Sky was uncharacteristically quiet and nervous when seeing the Cuccos lining behind Time. But seeing them obediently still and showed no threat, he began to calm down. He murmured something about the possibility to befriend with the tiny birds once again. 

Four, or rather his splitting images, wore different reactions on each other. Red looked in his usual pessimistic mark, but was about to go excited and started to cheer for Time. Blue was of no different than Legend, but he has more confused growl under his breath. Green was torn between whether to feel worried or relieved, and Vio's expression was unreadable, perhaps confused.

Twilight was fidgeting the whole time. For the love of Hylia, his mentor was heading straight towards the _burned_ grasses! He didn't know whether should he feel worried for his mentor due to the thing Wild had done, or feeling angry at his protégé for making Time going through all that. Both were very dear to him, he doesn't have a heart to feel negative at them. He just wanted to enjoy the song. 

Wild was hit with a pang of guilt and tried his best not to urge to help him. But at the same time, curiosity lurched over him and his mind began wondering of another of his mask collections. And the song was new, too; more cheerful compared to the occasional times when their leader played relaxing yet still haunting song to ease his nightmares. 

And Malon contributed only silent chuckles as Time finished the song and the marching and all of the Cuccos were back into their places, never to threaten them again. 

Time headed back towards the group, taking off his mask and finally able to demand explanations from them; only to be greeted with identical confusion on all of his boys' faces. It was unsettling, and he frowned at their odd behavior.

“What?”

They gasped in horror, and all Links finally said one sentence in unison. 

“The Hero of Cuccos.”

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus:
> 
> At dinner.
> 
> "So," here goes, Time's Lecturing Session™. "What's with these I heard of Cuccos going all rampage?"  
> The heroes just answered in the same unison as before, "Sky finally learns the ferocity of Cuccos."


End file.
